EDITORIAL: Want to see Cuba? Now you can

Published: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 at 05:35 PM.

When the Niceville Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce partnered last year with an organization called Chamber Explorations to offer trips to Cuba, it did so in the shadow of silly comments made by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. The presidential wannabe had just said that Americans who visit Cuba “provide money to a cruel, repressive and murderous regime.”
Now, at least, the senator is blathering about something else. Lately he’s been dodging and weaving on climate change. He’s had no time to pander to South Florida’s exile community.
And pandering is the word for his anti-travel rhetoric.
It’s true that vacation travel to Cuba is banned because the United States has had the communist island under an embargo since 1962. The embargo, though, hasn’t worked. Cuba is still communist.
What has a better chance of working is free and open travel to Cuba. Trade and tourism will bolster the island’s economy, increase Cubans’ contact with people from other nations, and gradually weaken the repression under which they live.
So we’d like to see the ban on vacation travel lifted. Until that happens, another chamber trip will do.
“Chamber Explorations has been issued a specific license by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which authorizes registered guests of their programs to visit Cuba legally for a cultural and educational experience,” the Niceville Valparaiso Chamber said this week.
Last year, the chamber said, 15 local residents signed up to visit Cuba. This year’s trip will be a six-day excursion available in the fall. For details, contact the chamber or visit the chamber office at 1055 E. John Sims Parkway, Niceville.

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When the Niceville Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce partnered last year with an organization called Chamber Explorations to offer trips to Cuba, it did so in the shadow of silly comments made by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. The presidential wannabe had just said that Americans who visit Cuba “provide money to a cruel, repressive and murderous regime.”
Now, at least, the senator is blathering about something else. Lately he’s been dodging and weaving on climate change. He’s had no time to pander to South Florida’s exile community.
And pandering is the word for his anti-travel rhetoric.
It’s true that vacation travel to Cuba is banned because the United States has had the communist island under an embargo since 1962. The embargo, though, hasn’t worked. Cuba is still communist.
What has a better chance of working is free and open travel to Cuba. Trade and tourism will bolster the island’s economy, increase Cubans’ contact with people from other nations, and gradually weaken the repression under which they live.
So we’d like to see the ban on vacation travel lifted. Until that happens, another chamber trip will do.
“Chamber Explorations has been issued a specific license by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which authorizes registered guests of their programs to visit Cuba legally for a cultural and educational experience,” the Niceville Valparaiso Chamber said this week.
Last year, the chamber said, 15 local residents signed up to visit Cuba. This year’s trip will be a six-day excursion available in the fall. For details, contact the chamber or visit the chamber office at 1055 E. John Sims Parkway, Niceville.